"reputation, including ""Rope"", ""Rear Window"", ""To Catch a Thief"", ""The Man Who Knew Too Much"", and ""North by Northwest"". The project, which Hitchcock tackled in part to compete with financially successful, low-budget, youth-oriented horror movies, went on to astound many by becoming a cultural watershed, an international box-office success, a film classic, and a forerunner of the violent, disorienting films and real-events of the turbulent 1960s and '70s. ""Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho"" was initially distributed in hardcover print by W.W. Norton for Dembner Books on April 15, 1990 in the United States. A trade paperback edition was"
"get away with it. The fact that many scenes of the film were set in a cinema allowed Hitchcock to include references to contemporary films and storylines. Perhaps the most famous of these is the final film sequence, an excerpt from a Walt Disney Silly Symphony ""Who Killed Cock Robin?"" (1935). Sabotage (1936 film) Sabotage, also released as The Woman Alone, is a 1936 British espionage thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Sylvia Sidney, Oskar Homolka, and John Loder. It is loosely based on Joseph Conrad's novel ""The Secret Agent"", about a woman who discovers that her husband,"
"films, such as ""Hangmen Also Die"", deal with spies during World War II. Alfred Hitchcock did much to popularise the spy film in the 1930s with his influential thrillers ""The Man Who Knew Too Much"" (1934), ""The 39 Steps"" (1935), ""Sabotage"" (1937) and ""The Lady Vanishes"" (1938). These often involved innocent civilians being caught up in international conspiracies or webs of saboteurs on the home front, as in ""Saboteur"" (1942). Some, however, dealt with professional spies as in Hitchcock's ""Secret Agent"" (1936), based on W. Somerset Maugham's ""Ashenden"" stories, or the Mr. Moto series, based on the books of John"
"to Duncan's book. This was to be a big-budget adaptation of Laurens van der Post's novel of political intrigue in Southern Africa. James Stewart was expected to take the lead role of an adventurer who discovers a concentration camp for Communist agents; Hitchcock wanted Grace Kelly to play the love interest. After a disappointing research trip to South Africa where he concluded that he would have difficulty filming, especially on a budget – and with confusion of the story's politics and the impracticability of casting Kelly, Hitchcock deferred the project and instead cast Stewart in ""The Man Who Knew Too"
"unknown young director to make his debut: Alfred Hitchcock. Hicks directed ""Sleeping Partners"" (1930) and ""Glamour"" (1931). In addition, over a dozen films were made either from his plays or his scripts, and he starred in about twenty films, many with his wife. One of his early films was ""Money for Nothing"" (1932) In 1931, he was awarded the Legion of Honour for his promotion of French drama on the English stage. In 1934, he had taken over Daly's Theatre in London, where he produced and appeared in a series of successful plays including ""Vintage Wine"" that he and Ashley"
"Notorious (1946 film) Notorious is a 1946 American spy film noir directed and produced by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, and Claude Rains as three people whose lives become intimately entangled during an espionage operation. It was shot in late 1945 and early 1946, and was released by RKO Radio Pictures in August 1946. ""Notorious"" is considered by critics and scholars to mark a watershed for Hitchcock artistically, and to represent a heightened thematic maturity. His biographer, Donald Spoto, writes that """"Notorious"" is in fact Alfred Hitchcock's first attempt—at the age of forty-six—to bring his talents to the"
"It was eventually filmed as ""The Man Who Knew Too Much"" (1934), which was a significant success. After doing ""Night Mail"" (1935) with Bristow, Bennett wrote ""The 39 Steps"" (1935) for Hitchcock, a film which soon established itself as a classic; Bennett said he was responsible for most of the film's construction, but paid tribute to the contribution of Ian Hay, who did dialogue. Bennett was now in much demand. He wrote ""The Clairvoyant"" (1935) with Claude Rains and Fay Wray; ""King of the Damned"" (1935), written with Sidney Gilliat; ""All at Sea"" (1936); ""Blue Smoke"" (1935). He did two"
"What Every Woman Knows (1934 film) What Every Woman Knows (1934) is an American romantic comedy film directed by Gregory La Cava and starring Helen Hayes, Brian Aherne and Madge Evans. The film was produced and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and is based on the play ""What Every Woman Knows"" (1908) by J. M. Barrie. It was filmed by Paramount back in the silent era in 1921 and starred Lois Wilson. An even earlier British silent version was filmed in 1917. Hayes was familiar with the material as she had starred in a 1926 Broadway revival opposite Kenneth MacKenna. Alick Wylie"
"her, Alfred Hitchcock's uncle John Hitchcock had also provided funds. Greet's generosity was something the director never forgot, and she appeared in more Hitchcock films than any other performer (other than Leo G. Carroll, who also appeared in six Hitchcock films): ""The Ring"" (1927), ""The Manxman"" (1929), ""Murder!"" (1930), ""The Man Who Knew Too Much"" (1934), ""Sabotage"" (1936), and ""Jamaica Inn"" (1939). Number 13 (film) In 1922, Alfred Hitchcock obtained his first shot at directing for Gainsborough Pictures with the film Number 13 (or Mrs. Peabody). Clare Greet and Ernest Thesiger were to star as husband and wife. The story"
"The Wrong Man The Wrong Man is a 1956 American docudrama film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Henry Fonda and Vera Miles. The film was drawn from the true story of an innocent man charged with a crime, as described in the book ""The True Story of Christopher Emmanuel Balestrero"" by Maxwell Anderson and in the magazine article ""A Case of Identity"" (""Life"" magazine, June 29, 1953) by Herbert Brean. It is one of the few Hitchcock films based on a true story and whose plot closely follows the real-life events. ""The Wrong Man"" had a notable effect on"
"voted the fifth best British film of 1936. It currently has a 90% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with Geoff Andrew of ""Time Out"" writing, ""This thriller may not be one of Hitchcock's best English films, but it is full of startling set pieces and quirky characterisation."" Secret Agent (1936 film) Secret Agent is a 1936 British film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, loosely based on two stories in """" by W. Somerset Maugham. The film starred Madeleine Carroll, Peter Lorre, John Gielgud, and Robert Young. Future star Michael Redgrave made a brief, uncredited appearance; he would play the male lead"
"not watch the early version nor read its script, with all the plot details coming from a briefing with Hitchcock. Only the opening scenes of the script were ready when filming begun, and Hayes had to send by airmail the subsequent script pages as he finished them. Hitchcock again brought James Stewart to be his protagonist as he was considering the actor a creative partner, and Paramount wanted a sense of continuity between his works. The director requested blonde Doris Day for the main female role as he liked her performance in ""Storm Warning"", though associate producer Herbert Coleman was"
"later ""Arsenic and Old Lace"" (1944) and ""I Was a Male War Bride"" (1949); these films are frequently cited as among the all-time great comedy films. Having established himself as a major Hollywood star, he was nominated twice for the Academy Award for Best Actor, for ""Penny Serenade"" (1941) and ""None but the Lonely Heart"" (1944). In the 1940s and 1950s, Grant forged a working relationship with the director Alfred Hitchcock, appearing in films such as ""Suspicion"" (1941), ""Notorious"" (1946), ""To Catch a Thief"" (1955) and ""North by Northwest"" (1959). Hitchcock admired Grant and considered him to have been the"
"on 25 reviews. Some critics have inferred that Hitchcock was hoping to groom the relatively unknown Frederick Stafford as a star of his own making, similar to Tippi Hedren; however, Stafford remained an unknown in Hollywood, though he had a lengthy career in European films. The movie earned $3,839,363 in North American rentals in 1970. Topaz (1969 film) Topaz is a 1969 American espionage thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Based on the 1967 Cold War novel ""Topaz"" by Leon Uris, the film is about a French intelligence agent who becomes entangled in the Cold War politics of the events"
"and became a big hit for her. They play a couple whose son is kidnapped to prevent them from interfering with an assassination. As in the 1934 film, the climax takes place at the Royal Albert Hall, London. ""The Wrong Man"" (1957), Hitchcock's final film for Warner Bros., is a low-key black-and-white production based on a real-life case of mistaken identity reported in ""Life"" magazine in 1953. This was the only film of Hitchcock to star Henry Fonda, playing a Stork Club musician mistaken for a liquor store thief, who is arrested and tried for robbery while his wife (Vera"
"reliable, congenial presence on set and became a first choice for directors with smaller roles to cast, accumulating screen credits at the rate of up to six a year through to the 1960s. He appeared as an extra in Hitchcock's 1934 film ""The Man Who Knew Too Much"" (credited as ""Policeman with Rifle""), and the following year was cast again by Hitchcock in the role of the milkman in the famous scene with Robert Donat in ""The 39 Steps"". Piper was only on screen for seconds, but the iconic nature of the scene ultimately made this probably his most famous"
"first of which was the psychological thriller ""Rebecca"" starring Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine. He received his first nomination for the Academy Award for Best Director, and the film won Best Picture. Hitchcock worked with Fontaine again the following year on the film ""Suspicion"" which also starred Cary Grant. In 1943, Hitchcock directed another psychological thriller ""Shadow of a Doubt"" which starred Teresa Wright and Joseph Cotten. Three years later he reunited with Grant on ""Notorious"" which also starred Ingrid Bergman. The film included a three-minute intermittent kissing scene between the leads shot specifically to skirt the Motion Picture Production"
"and gore which would define Italian gialli. The Swedish director Arne Mattsson has also been pointed to as a possible influence, in particular his 1958 film ""Mannequin in Red"". Though the film shares stylistic and narrative similarities with later ""giallo"" films (particularly its use of color and its multiple murder plot), there is no direct evidence that subsequent Italian directors had seen it. The first ""true"" ""giallo"" film is usually considered to be Mario Bava's ""The Girl Who Knew Too Much"" (1963). Its title alludes to Alfred Hitchcock's classic ""The Man Who Knew Too Much"" (1934, remade by Hitchcock in"
"$340,000 from the US and Canada and $162,000 elsewhere resulting in a loss of $140,000. What Every Woman Knows (1934 film) What Every Woman Knows (1934) is an American romantic comedy film directed by Gregory La Cava and starring Helen Hayes, Brian Aherne and Madge Evans. The film was produced and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and is based on the play ""What Every Woman Knows"" (1908) by J. M. Barrie. It was filmed by Paramount back in the silent era in 1921 and starred Lois Wilson. An even earlier British silent version was filmed in 1917. Hayes was familiar with the"
"Paramount Pictures. The two films, however, are very different in tone, in setting, and in many plot details. In the book-length interview ""Hitchcock/Truffaut"" (1967), in response to fellow filmmaker François Truffaut's assertion that aspects of the remake were by far superior, Hitchcock replied, ""Let's say the first version is the work of a talented amateur and the second was made by a professional."" The 1934 film has nothing except the title in common with G. K. Chesterton's 1922 book of detective stories of the same name. Hitchcock decided to use the title because he held the film rights for some"
"his own novels, ""They Drive By Night"", for the film of the same name. As with that adaptation he found himself having to remove areas of dialogue and story that would not get by the censors of the time. Many of these would be depictions of graphic violence against men rather than the sexual nature of his previous novel. This was the first film directed by Pen Tennyson, who had served as Assistant Director to Alfred Hitchcock from 1934. He would go on to direct two further films before being killed during World War II. The film features an uncredited"
"hiding evidence of a murder, and when his glamorous girlfriend (Grace Kelly), at first disdainful of his voyeurism and skeptical about any crime, eventually is drawn in and tries to help solve the mystery. Limited by his wheelchair, Stewart is led by Hitchcock to react to what his character sees with mostly facial responses. It was a landmark year for Stewart, becoming the highest grossing actor of 1954 and the most popular Hollywood star in the world, displacing John Wayne. Hitchcock and Stewart formed a corporation, Patron Inc., to produce the film, which later became the subject of a Supreme"
"It saw the stage debut of Richard Burton whom Williams had spotted at an audition in Cardiff. The play has been revived at Clwyd Theatr Cymru in both 1976 and 2005, and received its first London revival in sixty years at London's Finborough Theatre in 2009. In addition to stage plays, Williams wrote a number of film screenplays, working with Alfred Hitchcock (on ""The Man Who Knew Too Much""), Carol Reed and other directors. He acted in and contributed dialogue to various films based on the novels of A. J. Cronin, including ""The Citadel"" (1938), ""The Stars Look Down"" (1939),"
"Secret Agent (1936 film) Secret Agent is a 1936 British film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, loosely based on two stories in """" by W. Somerset Maugham. The film starred Madeleine Carroll, Peter Lorre, John Gielgud, and Robert Young. Future star Michael Redgrave made a brief, uncredited appearance; he would play the male lead in Hitchcock's ""The Lady Vanishes"" (1938). The work was also Michael Rennie's film debut (though an uncredited one). Typical Hitchcockian themes used in ""Secret Agent"" include mistaken identity and murder. On 10 May 1916, during the First World War, British Captain and novelist Edgar Brodie (Gielgud) returns"
"- but not made special in the way Goulding made me special in this film."" The two went on to collaborate on three more films: ""Dark Victory"" (1939), ""The Old Maid"" (1939), and ""The Great Lie"" (1941). That Certain Woman That Certain Woman is a 1937 American drama film written and directed by Edmund Goulding and starring Bette Davis, Henry Fonda, and Anita Louise. It is a remake of Goulding's 1929 film ""The Trespasser"", Gloria Swanson's first sound film. The soap opera-like plot of the Warner Bros. release focuses on Mary Donnell (Bette Davis), a naive young woman married to"
"He Knew Women He Knew Women is a 1930 American comedy film, directed by Hugh Herbert, from a screenplay by him and William B. Jutte, which was adapted from S. N. Behrman's 1927 play ""The Second Man"". It starred Lowell Sherman and Alice Joyce, in her second to last film role. The film broke even. Geoffrey Clarke is a poor poet, who has his eyes on the fortune of a rich widow, Alice Frayne, in order to keep him in the lifestyle he feels he deserves. Geoffrey is pursued, however, by the young and lovely, yet poor, Monica Grey. Monica,"
"literate and entertaining melodrama of 1935, then it must be 'The Man Who Knew Too Much,' which is also out of Mr. Hitchcock's workshop. A master of shock and suspense, of cold horror and slyly incongruous wit, he uses the camera the way a painter uses his brush, stylizing his story and giving it values which the scenarists could hardly have suspected."" ""Variety"" wrote, ""International spy stories are most always good, and this is one of the best, smartly cut, with sufficient comedy relief."" ""The Monthly Film Bulletin"" declared it ""First class entertainment,"" adding, ""Like all melodramas in which the"
"Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941 film) Mr. & Mrs. Smith is a 1941 American screwball comedy film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, written by Norman Krasna, and starring Carole Lombard and Robert Montgomery. It also features Gene Raymond, Jack Carson, Philip Merivale, and Lucile Watson. While Hitchcock later claimed he directed the film—the only pure comedy he made in America—as a favor to Lombard, the files at RKO Radio Pictures show that Hitchcock himself pursued the project. Ann (Carole Lombard) and David Smith (Robert Montgomery) are a married couple living in New York City who, though in love, have disagreements that"
"1937 film of that name starring Irene Dunne and Cary Grant. The lyrics for the musical numbers were written by Ned Washington. Broadway philandering composer Gary Stuart (Ray Milland) discovers to his outrage that while he was taking a brief holiday from his marriage to Constance Stuart (Jane Wyman), she spent an evening in a ""country inn"" with rival composer Courtney Craig (Tom Helmore). Connie points out the impropriety of Gary's own behavior with dancer Lilly Adair (Valerie Bettis), yet when he agrees with her suggestion to consult a lawyer, she is regretful, and the couple get a divorce. Let's"
"for the company, ""The Man Who Knew Too Much"" (1934), was a success; his second, ""The 39 Steps"" (1935), was acclaimed in the UK and made Hitchcock a star in the US. It also established the quintessential English ""Hitchcock blonde"" (Madeleine Carroll) as the template for his succession of ice-cold, elegant leading ladies. Screenwriter Robert Towne remarked, ""It's not much of an exaggeration to say that all contemporary escapist entertainment begins with ""The 39 Steps"""". This film was one of the first to introduce the ""MacGuffin"" plot device, a term coined by the English screenwriter Angus MacPhail. The MacGuffin is"
"that ""Vertigo"" was one of his favourite films, with some reservations. Hitchcock blamed the film's failure on the 49-year-old Stewart looking too old to play a convincing love interest for the 24-year-old Kim Novak. Hitchcock and Stewart received awards at the San Sebastián International Film Festival, including a Silver Seashell for Best Director (tied with Mario Monicelli for ""Big Deal on Madonna Street"" (aka ""Persons Unknown"") and Best Actor (also tied, with Kirk Douglas in ""The Vikings""). The film was nominated for two Academy Awards, in the technical categories Best Art Direction – Black-and-White or Color (Hal Pereira, Henry Bumstead,"
"his fears and his repressed desires. Stewart's first movie with Hitchcock was the technologically innovative 1948 film ""Rope"", shot in long ""real time"" takes. The two collaborated for the second of four times on the 1954 hit ""Rear Window"", widely considered one of Hitchcock's masterpieces. Stewart portrays photographer L.B. ""Jeff"" Jeffries, loosely based on ""Life"" photographer Robert Capa, who projects his fantasies and fears onto the people he observes out his apartment window while on hiatus due to a broken leg. Jeffries gets into more than he can handle, however, when he believes he has witnessed a salesman (Raymond Burr)"
"to George Schaefer of RKO who agreed to buy the project from Krasna, then Alfred Hitchcock became involved. In the 1939 interview ""What I Do to the Stars"", Hitchcock is about to leave England for Hollywood and says he would like to make a movie with Carole Lombard, casting her not in one of her superficial comedies, but in a serious role, because he believes she could be as good a serious actor as Paul Muni or Leslie Howard. The result was ""Mr. and Mrs. Smith"". Hitchcock was never happy with the result and was later dismissive of the film."